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November 06, 2008

US president elect Barack Obama received a clear mandate from USA and with the support of the world became the first Democrat to win a majority of the popular vote since 1976. Here are some of the interesting reactions found around the web:

Everything in my life is exactly the same as it was 30 minutes ago; and yet I feel as though everything is different.

I know Obama isn't going to fix the economy overnight, I know he won't be able to provide healthcare to all Americans by February '09. I know Obama isn't a Messiah who four years from now will have turned this country into a fabled utopia. But I also know Obama will make moral decisions. I know Obama will try to unite where others try to divide. I know Obama will help to make America the beacon of hope it once was to others. I know that at 27 years of age, I witnessed one of the most important and hopefully glorious chapters in American history.

Tears surged in my eyes as I left the polling place. This change is not the product of a brilliant fundraiser's fancy marketing campaign, but a very real transformation among people as they have moved through space & time and shared experiences with each other. If a black man with the middle named Hussein can become President of the United States of America, anything is possible.

Forty years after Martin Luthor King gave voice to his dream, American voters have, by the many millions, judged a black man by the content of his character. I worry they are wrong on the substance and will argue like hell against his philosophy and policies, but I can also be happy that it happened and hope that Barack Obama governs as well as he campaigns.

Who among us is not at a loss for words? Tears pour out. Tears of joy. Tears of relief. A stunning, whopping landslide of hope in a time of deep despair.

In a nation that was founded on genocide and then built on the backs of slaves, it was an unexpected moment, shocking in its simplicity: Barack Obama, a good man, a black man, said he would bring change to Washington, and the majority of the country liked that idea. The racists were present throughout the campaign and in the voting booth. But they are no longer the majority, and we will see their flame of hate fizzle out in our lifetime.

The racists may not be a majority but their bites can still be felt.

Robert Spencer writes in Human Events that "Americans should be made decidedly uneasy by this Muslim enthusiasm for the new President." I guess in his eyes there are Muslims only. The KKK aren't too happy about the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. We hope that they will not be a majority again.